Taxinatra

 

Emanuele Della Seta (il Duca 40)

Imagine finding yourself in a taxi in Rome with a driver singing "NewYork, New York". Finally you've arrived in Fellini's Roma where everyone knows everybody. Taxinatra (his real name is Emanuele Della Seta and his Duca 40 cab is legendary) is your Virgil this time and every time you stop for a red light, the window goes down. What seems like an ongoing, almost eternal conversation, picks up where it left off. As you approach Termini to catch your train, Taxinatra who turns out to have his own You Tube channel asks if you have cash. "Yes" you reply. "Cash is king." It's a statement one doesn't need English to understand.

read "Boudu Saved From Drowning" by Francis Levy (with a painting by Hallie Cohen) in The East Hampton Star